A Philly man cleared of murder in 2017 was arrested and is a person of interest in a new city killing, police say

A Philadelphia man whose murder conviction was overturned in 2017 was charged with illegal gun possession Tuesday and is considered a person of interest in a city homicide committed last month, authorities said.

Shaurn Thomas, 48, was taken into custody Tuesday in Chester County after detectives executed a search warrant at his house there and found guns inside, according to Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. The warrant was connected to a Jan. 3 shooting in North Philadelphia that left 38-year-old Akeem Edwards dead, Vanore said.

Thomas was arraigned Tuesday night in Kennett Township for firearms violations and receiving stolen property, court records show.

Vanore said city detectives were still investigating the murder to determine if Thomas might face any charges in that case. The investigation was expected to include ballistics tests on the guns found in Thomas’ home to see if they match the cartridge casings found at the scene of the murder, on the 3500 block of Germantown Avenue, officials said.

Thomas was released from prison in 2017 after a judge agreed to vacate his 1993 murder conviction due to problematic evidence. Thomas had been sentenced to life behind bars for participating in the robbery and fatal shooting of 78-year-old Domingo Martinez in North Philadelphia.

Thomas always insisted he was innocent, an assertion that was supported by the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, which took up his case. And prosecutors who agreed to review it said they discovered a long-missing homicide file that contained information about an alternate suspect that had been improperly withheld from Thomas’ defense lawyers. They also interviewed prison officials from the early 1990s who offered information that they believe bolstered Thomas’ long-standing alibi: that he was in Center City, at a juvenile jail, on the day Martinez was shot.

Thomas was released from prison after a judge agreed that his conviction was tainted, and prosecutors, saying there was little credible evidence left, declined to retry him.

Three years later, he settled a civil suit against the city for $4.15 million, saying afterward: “I’m not bitter toward nobody. I don’t hate nobody. This is just life, and this is the hand I was dealt.”

Thomas’ freedom was secured just months before District Attorney Larry Krasner was sworn into office. The reform-oriented prosecutor would go on to dramatically expand his office’s focus on reviewing old convictions, and prosecutors have since helped overturn dozens of cases, nearly all of them murders.

Last fall, one of the exonerees, Jahmir Harris, was charged with participating in a new fatal shooting: the killing of Charles “Chali Khan” Gossett in Overbrook. Prosecutors said that was the first time any of the Philadelphians whose convictions have been tossed out had gone on to face charges in another homicide.

Staff writer Vinny Vella contributed to this article.